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By Tamar Anolic
Publisher: Independently published
Pages: 338
Genre: Music Industry Historical Fiction (Rock Drama)
Fame. Fortune. Pitfalls.
It is 1978, and a music scene is brewing in Los Angeles. Singer Gunnar Erickson and guitarist Shep Townsend leave Grand Island, Nebraska, hoping to make it big as rock stars. Before long, they help form the talented and popular band Authentic Cadence and are managed by the biggest names in the business.
As they begin to realize their dreams, however, Gunnar and Shep learn that that fame has its downsides. Between the constant touring and groupies and the traps of easy drugs, their fame also attracts toxic family members they thought were long gone. As one platinum album turns into another, Gunnar and Shep find themselves playing to large stadiums with a tough manager who won’t give them a break. Soon, both musicians feel like they are losing themselves entirely- and it will take a tragedy to change that.
"Perfect Cadence" by Tamar Anolic offers a measured and emotionally astute exploration of fame, one that consistently resists glamour in favour of consequence. Set against the volatile Los Angeles music scene of the late 1970s, early 1980s, the novel follows the rise of Gunnar Erickson and Shep Townsend from anonymity to acclaim, while remaining firmly focused on the personal costs of that transformation. This is not a celebration of stardom, but a study of what is lost when privacy, stability, and selfhood are eroded by success.
As Authentic Cadence’s profile grows, fame arrives not as validation but as confinement. Gunnar, as the band’s lead singer and public face, experiences this most acutely. His inability to go anywhere without being recognised strips him of autonomy and safety, turning ordinary spaces into sites of exposure. Anolic captures with unsettling clarity how constant visibility breeds anxiety rather than confidence. Fan adoration, once abstract, becomes invasive and, at times, dangerous—particularly for Gunnar, whose position as the face of the band makes him a focal point for obsession. These encounters are not sensationalised, but presented as a persistent undercurrent of threat, reinforcing the novel’s emphasis on vulnerability.
Running parallel to Gunnar’s inward struggle is Shep’s escalating drug use, which increasingly marks him as the band’s loose cannon. Anolic resists caricature, portraying Shep not as a cautionary stereotype but as a man whose recklessness is amplified by an industry that rewards excess while ignoring consequence. His substance use heightens impulsivity and volatility, placing strain on the band’s cohesion and testing the limits of Gunnar and Shep’s once-stabilising friendship. Where Gunnar internalises fear and doubt, Shep externalises it, and the tension between these responses becomes one of the novel’s most compelling dynamics.
Anolic draws a clear and telling contrast in how the two men engage with alcohol and drugs. Gunnar, acutely aware that his voice is not only his livelihood but his identity, approaches substances with caution. He fears what drugs might do to his voice and, by extension, to the one part of himself he still feels able to protect. As a result, he largely avoids hard drugs, though not entirely, navigating a careful and often conflicted restraint rather than outright abstinence. This fear-driven moderation underscores his anxiety and his desire to retain some measure of control in a world increasingly defined by excess.
Shep, by contrast, harbours no such fears. Untethered from the same sense of vulnerability, he embraces drugs without hesitation, treating them as both escape and fuel. His lack of restraint accelerates his unpredictability, reinforcing his role as the band’s most volatile presence. This divergence deepens the rift between the two men, transforming substance use into a symbolic fault line between preservation and abandonment.
Despite the fame and the constant presence of beautiful, available women, Gunnar’s emotional centre remains firmly rooted in his past. His heart belongs to Louise, his childhood sweetheart, whose presence represents stability, faith, and a life untouched by the corrosive demands of the music industry. Louise does not conform to the stereotypical image of a rock star’s partner. Deeply religious and wholly uninterested in glamour, she exists outside Gunnar’s new world, and it is precisely this distance that gives their relationship its emotional power. Anolic treats Louise with nuance and respect, portraying her not as an obstacle to Gunnar’s success, but as a figure whose values simply cannot survive within its confines.
When Louise ultimately ends their relationship, the moment is quietly devastating. Her decision feels rooted not in betrayal but in incompatibility, and its emotional consequences for Gunnar are profound. Cut adrift from the one person who anchored him to a sense of identity beyond fame, Gunnar spirals into depression. Anolic renders this descent with restraint, avoiding melodrama while conveying the depth of his isolation. The adulation of fans offers no solace; instead, it sharpens the absence Louise leaves behind, reinforcing the novel’s central paradox—that abundance can coexist with profound emptiness.
The emerging HIV/AIDS crisis is handled with similar sensitivity and historical awareness. Rather than foregrounding the epidemic as spectacle, Anolic allows it to exist as a pervasive, unspoken fear—mirroring the confusion, stigma, and silence of the era.
"Perfect Cadence" stands as a reflective and humane examination of visibility, identity, and cost. Anolic understands that fame’s greatest damage is rarely dramatic collapse, but quiet erosion—the gradual loss of safety, connection, and self that occurs while the world insists everything is going exactly as it should. This is an enthralling read, one that lingers long after the final page, not for its spectacle, but for its emotional honesty and unflinching insight into the true price of success.
Yarde Book Promotions
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